BEIJING, July 25 (Xinhua) -- China has allocated 69 billion yuan (about 9.66 billion U.S. dollars) in its third batch of ultra-long special treasury bond funds to support the country's consumer goods trade-in program, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) said on Friday.

The MOF, together with the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), has this year earmarked 300 billion yuan in such funds to back the program, MOF official Wu Gai told a press conference.

The first two batches of these funds -- totaling 162 billion yuan -- were allocated in January and April this year, according to Wu. The remaining funds will be disbursed in October to support local authorities in advancing the trade-in program, he added.

As of July 16, a total of 280 million people across the country have applied for subsidies under the consumer goods trade-in program, driving sales of related commodities to exceed 1.6 trillion yuan, data from the NDRC shows.

In its next step, the NDRC said it will optimize subsidy distribution methods, ensure more orderly policy implementation, and strengthen supervision over product quality and pricing. ■